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Frowning, Chase narrowed his eyes. “Our intel is never wrong. Carter hacked into the port authority server himself. The husband was logged as one of the passengers.”
Cracking my neck, one of many bad habits I’d picked up after coming back to the States, I sighed. “She says he wasn’t on board. But we should get him on the line to make sure he’s safe.”
His eyes stayed on my face for a few more seconds before Chase turned to Thea. “Mrs. Barlowe, do you mind calling your husband so we can confirm he’s safe?”
Thea held out her hand, the only sign that she’d heard him, and he handed her his satellite phone. She dialed a number from memory, then put the phone to her ear. Her hair had always been gorgeous, but now it was even longer, falling down her back in thick waves. She’d filled out, her new curves suiting her.
“Hey, honey,” she said when a muted voice sounded on the other end. “There was an incident on the yacht.”
The other person yelled, cutting off anything else she wanted to say. “I’m fine,” she eventually cut in. “But the guys from Locked Security want to speak to you to make sure you’re okay. Since you’re on the manifesto.”
Her voice dropped at the last part, and I wondered what was going on here. Why would her husband pretend to be on the boat?
Thea handed the phone to Devon, who briefly spoke to William, then hit the Off button. “Okay, let’s get you to a hospital.”
Holding up her hand when Devon took her elbow to guide her out, she turned back. “What about the yacht?”
Looking at the three crew members, I weighed our options. We could anchor the boat here and hope nobody made off with it, or we could persuade the crew to get it to the closest harbor.
I looked them over. They seemed a little shaken up but had no visible injuries. “You guys up for getting the yacht to a dock?”
A guy stepped forward, white uniform untucked, one of his shoulder pads ripped off. “Of course. A captain never leaves his ship. We’ll get her back safely, Mrs. Barlowe. You go and get yourself fixed up.”
Lowering her head, Thea sighed in defeat. “Thank you, Ricky. Radio if you need anything.”
“I will. Now take care of yourself, and don’t worry about a thing.”
When Devon guided her out of the room, she didn’t stop him. Carter spoke to the captain, and I followed Thea, unable to let her out of my sight.
She placed one foot in front of the other with infinite care, leaning heavily on Devon.
The urge to hurt the guy who’d hit her was overpowering. But if there was one thing I’d learned in the past year, it was how to turn off my emotions.
“Where do you think you’re going, newbie?” Carter called after me. “We have captives to process and hand over to the authorities.”
Losing sight of Thea as she disappeared around the side of the boat, I turned back. My thoughts should have been on completing the mission, not on a woman who was only a memory.
Picking up the guy who’d stood guard, I slapped him, hoping he’d wake up and I wouldn’t have to drag him behind me.
The sound of a chopper approaching signaled Thea’s ride to the hospital. I spent the remainder of my night dragging unconscious bodies to a police boat that had arrived to take the guys we’d knocked out into custody.
I made a note to talk to the office about lowering the doses in the tranquilizer darts, since it was hard work dragging limp bodies.
When the chopper came back to pick us up, I didn’t ask about Thea. Instead, I requested to be assigned to the next available team going out on another mission.
I was in luck, since there had been an assassination attempt on the US ambassador in South Africa. They still needed someone to complete the team to go out there and extract him. It was the perfect way to forget about a past I no longer wanted to remember.
